France’s Former First Lady Supports Gay Marriage Plan

PARIS - France’s former first lady Carla Bruni says she disagrees with her conservative husband Nicolas Sarkozy and supports a plan to allow gay marriage and adoption.

In an interview with the French edition of Vogue for its December issue, the 44-year-old former supermodel and singer said: "I’m rather in favor because I have a lot of friends - men and women - who are in this situation and I see nothing unstable or perverse in families with gay parents."

France’s Socialists are pushing a bill that could see gay marriage legalized early next year, defying criticism from religious leaders and Sarkozy’s own UMP party.

Bruni says, "my husband is opposed for reasons linked to his political vocation, because he sees people as groups of thousands rather than people we know personally."

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France’s government is introducing a bill this week that would let homosexual couples marry and adopt children. Such a law would make France the 12th country to legalize gay marriage, and the biggest country - both in population and economy - to do so.

France’s government has promised €20 billion ($25 billion) in tax credits to businesses as part a "competitiveness pact" that it hopes will spark innovation and lower unemployment - but falls short of calls in a recent report for a "shock" to the economy.